


Magnus Chase and the Homeless Stalkers

by Rosemarycat5



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Homelessness, Pre-Canon, Pre-The Sword of Summer, falafel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 04:57:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13046958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosemarycat5/pseuds/Rosemarycat5
Summary: Magnus's already abnormal life on the streets of Boston is interrupted when two weirdos come into his life.  Their names: Hearth and Blitz.  Falafel also makes an appearance.





	Magnus Chase and the Homeless Stalkers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VanaTuivana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanaTuivana/gifts).



> This story is set two years before the beginning of The Sword of Summer. No spoilers beyond Book One.
> 
> Big thanks to my sister for being my beta and for her great suggestions!

~ Magnus ~

"Hey, Mangus, some guys were asking for you," Jimmy, one of the librarians, said.

I pried my eyeballs off the cruel plot twist Neal Shusterman had thrown at me as I sat in a comfy chair in the Boston Public Library. "Who? And I told you, it's Magnus rhymes with Swagnus, not Mangus rhymes with Angus."

"I dunno, Angus, two scruffy homeless guys. One's super short, the other's deaf."

I peered around one of the book shelves to where a dark, dwarven man argued with a pale, blond biker in sign language.

"Uhhh, any idea why they're looking for me?" I asked.

"Don’t know. You gonna put that back where you found it?" He didn’t wait for my answer as he picked up my book and let the bookmark fall to the ground, while my mind cried out, _But, but the plot twist..._

Seeing as Jimmy had already moved on to another section, I turned my attention to my homeless stalkers. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention, I'm homeless too. I have been for the past few months. Ever since.... So my stalkers; I walked over to the circulation desk where it appeared the argument had been resolved. The short guy had twigs throughout his dark hair and a trench coat down to the floor, and the deaf guy had bleached blond hair, leather clothes, and a Where's-Waldo scarf. I momentarily debated going to find my book and running off into the cool December afternoon, but instead I sighed and walked over to them. As the short guy saw me approach, he whacked the other on the shoulder to get his attention. They looked towards me.

"Uh, hi. You were looking for me in a hopefully not-about to-kidnap-me way?" I asked.

They stared at me for another second when the short guy said, "Yeah, we were sent to protect you."

"Oh?" They were beginning to gel in my mind as crazy weirdos, which were not uncommon, but I wanted to know why they sought me out. "Any particular reason?"

The blond one began signing some variety of explanation, but, as I did not know American Sign Language, I looked to the other guy for assistance.

"Hearthst— Hearth is right; we just heard you were a kid who was new to the streets, and we thought we'd help you out," he said.

This was pretty odd, but not entirely impossible.

"So who are you guys?" I asked.

"I'm Blitz, and this is Hearth." As he spoke, he relayed the conversation to Hearth in sign language. I still found them strange, but on the off chance that they were being genuine, I didn't want to blow them off. "We've been living up on the Cape for the past few years, but our job ended, and we wound up here."

I noticed the librarian glaring at us from the circulation desk and suggested we move out of the way. We ended up in the holiday section, surrounded by little elves and reindeer. Just to make small talk, I commented saying, "Reindeer are really weird, right? I mean just look at their names: Prancer, Blitzen."

Hearth grinned broadly and nudged Blitz, who glared back. "Anyway, yeah it's a little weird. We're not exactly Christian ourselves."

"Same. So what were your guys' jobs?"

They exchanged a look. "Uh, you know...," the conversation trailed off awkwardly. So far, these weirdos hadn’t given me any reason to trust them, and they didn’t seem willing to give much more information.

My fight or flight (okay, mostly flight) instincts kicked in. "Uh huh, well I gotta run, my, uh, soup kitchen’s closing soon."

"Well, we could come with you," Blitz offered, in a way that made it clear they were going to come.

We walked out of the library into the frosty December air. I told them the kitchen was down this way and scurried down the street. As soon as I'd put some distance between us, I ran into the transportation building because it was big enough that I doubted they would spot me. I was immediately assaulted with the delicious smell of food cooking as I entered the food court. I was drawn over to the counter of a Middle Eastern restaurant like a stain is drawn to a white shirt. As I stared at the freshly cooked pita and falafel, the guy at the counter tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hello, you want some falafel, my friend?" he asked with a slight Middle Eastern accent.

"Uh, I don’t have any money," I said, but my drooling mouth and googly eyes seemed to tell him otherwise.

"It's okay. I'll give you some of yesterday's leftovers. Can't sell it, but it's still good. Falafel okay? What's your name, my friend?"

"Yeah, that sounds great." Snapping out of my food trance, I said, "Uh, my name's...Jimmy."

The man smiled. "Nice to meet you, Jimmy. I'm Abdel Fadlan." He left and returned with a heaping tray of falafel and shawarma.

When I saw it - okay, after I ate around half of it - I asked if he'd get in trouble with his boss for giving food away. He replied, saying he was the owner.

After a few minutes of blissful eating (the food was way better than the crap served at homeless shelters; nobody wants to eat your ancient cans of green beans!), I saw Hearth outside the window. We briefly made eye contact, and he came in. He sat down next to me and signed. He pointed at me, held his hands together before letting them drop into Ls, made two thumbs up signs pulling one hand above the other, and pointed to himself and the street. I obviously didn't know what he said (but later found out he said, "Almost lost us there"), but I got the general idea as he looked at me with eyebrows raised and piercing blue eyes locked on mine. I handed him some falafel as a peace offering, and, with a small smile, he accepted.

~ Meanwhile, as Magnus and Hearthstone bond ~

Blitz, having gotten separated from Hearthstone and Magnus, had somehow ended up in the Boston Public Garden. He was wandering around cursing Mimir and Hearthstone because he was utterly lost, when he spotted the ducks. It was always ducks. He looked at the row of bronze ducklings; they looked at him. He looked at the ducks. The ducks looked back. He took a step back directly into a sign that read, "Make Way for Ducklings," and ran off in search of Hearth.

After a while of walking, he spotted him eating with Magnus in the transportation building. He walked in and, at Hearth's look, signed, _Ducks. Always bronze ducks._

Hearth nodded and explained that he had found Magnus and relieved him of some of his food.

~ Earlier that afternoon, regarding Hearth and Blitz ~

Blitzen and Hearthstone began to walk towards the Boston Public Library. _Just so you know,_ Hearth signed in Alf Sign Language, _I'm trying very hard to not to laugh at you for that outfit. You could have dressed relatively normally._

"But the Cappo said to dress like homeless people! Honestly, do you think I want to dress like this?! Plus, I need to dress in sun protective gear," Blitz said, signing as he spoke.

_Sun protective gear is one thing; Midgard sun is weird. But I can tell you spent a longer time than you'd care to admit braiding sticks into your hair,_ Hearth signed.

Blitzen huffed, "Well, what did you expect me to do? Roll around in some dirt? Anyway, Cappo said the kid'd be at the library, right? So let's head in and try to find him." They entered the library, and upon seeing how large it was, were confronted with the issue of finding Magnus.

_Gee, Cappo was really specific when he told you where Chase would be, huh?_

"Uh, yeah, maybe we should ask if they've seen him." Blitz walked over to the circulation desk and asked the old woman sitting there if she'd seen a guy named Magnus Chase. She said she hadn't, but a man who was carrying library books said he had and that he'd let "Mangus" know they were looking for him.

As Blitz and Hearth waited next to the glaring librarian, they found themselves near a Christmas book display on the desk filled with children's books about elves and reindeer.

_Funny, they look just like you,_ Blitzen signed to Hearth, gesturing at a book entitled _The Twelve Dancing Elves_.

They traded snipes for a while.

~ Magnus ~

While we ate, I talked to Hearth. I obviously didn't understand the specifics of what he signed, and he probably couldn't really read my food-stuffed lips, but we got the gist. He seemed nice, and just from expressions and gestures, very sarcastic. I'd already been homeless for two months, and the only other friend I'd made was some lady's pet shopping cart named Clarence. And he was pretty bad at conversation.

Blitz wandered in after a little bit and signed with Hearth, while I sat there awkwardly. After a couple of minutes, they turned back to me.

"So how about those...ducks?" Blitz tried to sound casual.

"Ducks?"

"Uhh, yeah, not important. So, kid, tell me if you're going to share some of that shawarma." I handed him a piece, and he munched it happily.

It was about 4:30pm at that point, and because it was Boston in December, the sun began to dip in the sky. As it did, Hearth looked out at the window with such horror that I asked what was wrong. Blitz gravely told me not to ask. That made me uneasy; the guy was staring out like the world was ending. After a few minutes, Blitz put a hand on Hearth’s shoulder and calmed him down. We returned to conversation, but Hearth continued to look skittish. He kept eyeing the window like it was planning to eat him.

Abdel came back over to tell us he had to close up early for a family event, and we headed out. As we left, I thanked him for the free food, and he said that I could come back anytime for more leftovers. (Oh, I came back for more leftovers.)

Hearth seemed really uneasy walking in the dark, so I suggested we go back to the library, which was open until 9. As we walked there, we passed a clothing boutique, and Blitz paused to stare at it longingly.

"Thinking of buying a suit?" I asked jokingly.

He opened his mouth to speak, but glanced down at his clothes and responded, "I wish, kid."

That gave me a bit of pause. "Was your old job working in retail or something?"

He again got evasive about his old job, and it still made me uneasy. Part of me was saying, _Yeah, these guys are definitely hit-men trying to make enough money to open a clothing store._ But honestly, they felt decently trustworthy, and since not many people (or shopping carts) gave me that vibe, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they were really bad hit-men who got fired because they didn’t kill people.

Just then, I spotted a familiar face coming out of a convenience store, holding a chocolate bar and a gallon of guava juice. I ducked behind the nearest mailbox - an incredibly stealthy hiding place, I know - and Blitz and Hearth stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "That’s my uncle," I hissed.

They exchanged a look and stood protectively near me, blocking me from sight in a not-too-subtle way. They were standing facing away from a mailbox looking like they were about to beat someone up to protect the mail. I appreciated the effort though.  Randolph, my uncle, got back in his car and sped off, narrowly missing a pedestrian in an orange T-shirt. I told them they could move, and I expected them to ask about my guava-guzzling, Hershey-hoarding, psycho-driving uncle, but Blitz just said, "We get it, kid. We know something about complicated families," and didn't elaborate or ask me to. Pleasantly surprised, I walked on silently with them to the library.

~ Epilogue: Magnus ~

Over the next weeks, I continued to see Hearth and Blitz daily, though rarely at the same time. Hearth tended to leave as soon as it got dark, and Blitz would flat out fall off the face of the Earth after sunrise. They became my good friends, and I no longer had to hang out with Clarence. I continued to go to Fadlan’s Falafel to eat all of their leftovers; they loved "Jimmy." My life settled into a sort of normal until, of course, almost two years later, but I can tell you about that another time.


End file.
